19 - Do you want to be happy, my Friends

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June 3, 2024

Do you realize your own wealth?

"You can go into your kitchen in the heat of July and with the turn of your wrist get water, and put ice in it straight from the freezer, and sit on your couch with the a.c. blowing in your face. There was never a king, no matter how powerful, in antiquity who could do that or rival your ability to comfort your flesh"

Take a moment to consider the luxuries that the modern man is immersed in. He lives with greater wealth than the kings of old and less responsibility. He sleeps in a soft bed, safe from the elements, safe from the pestering flies, temperature controlled, complete with indoor plumbing, hot water on tap, stoves that light with the wave of a hand. He has lights in case the sun fails him, shutters for when it shines too bright, fans for when the wind doesn't blow, windows for when it does. He's got a truck because horses were too much work, a tractor for the same reason. Herbicides to conquer weeds. Phones to conquer distance. Machines to conquer work. Entertainment to conquer boredom. Medicine to conquer sickness. Pills to conquer sadness...

But he has just as much worry, or even more. Because while in the past men worried about if they would have enough of what they needed, now we worry about having enough of what we don't need. And we worry about losing what we have. The poor man has nothing and so can lose nothing. But we have everything, and so our fall, how great it will be.

The angels must look at our generation in particular, since the turn of the 20th century, and marvel not just at the generosity of God, but more shockingly, at the ingratitude of men. The abundance we've been given in these last days is unprecedented. And we all know it. Yet man has said to his creator that it was his own ingenuity that brought it all about. And even more despicably he has said that it is not enough.

The Venerable Louis de Granada writes in the 16th century:

"Moreover, all the riches of the world, did you possess them, would never satisfy the desires of your heart. They would only excite and increase them. However great the possessions you accumulate, there will be a continual void within you; you will never cease to long for more."

And that is what we do. We are always longing for more. Comparing ourselves to someone else and so justifying our actions as if God will grade on a bell curve.

There are certain people who claim since Christ died for them, then they need not suffer. But then why did Christ say "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For he that will save his life, shall lose it: for he that shall lose his life for my sake, shall save it. For what profit hath a man if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, and cast away himself?"

We cannot then be Christian and live like this - ever seeking to please our flesh, to attain greater wealth, to "gain the world".

But then what do we do?

Because if it is sin to be slothful, to sleep too long, to never work, and if by working all we gain is the world. What purpose is there in life? It is all vanity. And it would all be vanity. Unless we live for God.

Venerable Louis gives us this consideration for covetousness:

"Having once understood that nothing but God can satisfy the heart, I am convinced of the folly of seeking anything but this supreme Good."

So when you work, work for God and not for yourself, and when you rest, rest for God. It is more blessed to give than to receive.

And in life we must suffer. And it won't be enjoyable, because it wouldn't be called suffering if it were. Yet in carrying our cross we find truer happiness than anything else on earth.

St. Vianney said,

"As for us, we suffer with anger, vexation, and weariness, because we do not love. If we loved God, we would love crosses, we would wish for them, we would take pleasure in them. . . . We would be happy to be able to suffer for the love of Him who lovingly suffered for us. Of what do we complain? Alas! the poor infidels, who have not the happiness of knowing God and His infinite loveliness, have the same crosses that we have; but they have not the same consolations. You say it is hard? No, it is easy, it is consoling, it is sweet; it is happiness. Only we must love while we suffer, and suffer while we love."

and again

"Why, my dear brethren, are our lives full of so many miseries? If we consider the life of man carefully, it is nothing other than a succession of evils: the illnesses, the disappointments, the persecutions, and indeed the losses of goods fall unceasingly upon us so that whatever side the worldly man turns to or examines, he finds only crosses and afflictions. Go and ask anyone, from the humblest to the greatest, and they will all tell you the same thing. Indeed, my dear brethren, man on earth, unless he turns to the side of God, cannot be other than unhappy. Do you know why, my friends? No, you tell me. Well, here is the real reason. It is that God, having put us into this world as into a place of exile and of banishment, wishes to force us, by so many evils, not to attach our hearts to it but to aspire to greater, purer, and more lasting joys than those we can find in this life. To make us appreciate more keenly the necessity to turn our eyes to eternal blessings, God has filled our hearts with desires so vast and so magnificent that nothing in creation is capable of satisfying them. Thus it is that in the hope of finding some pleasure, we attach ourselves to created objects and that we have no sooner possessed and sampled that which we have so ardently desired than we turn to something else, hoping to find what we wanted. We are, then, through our own experience, constrained to admit that it is but useless for us to want to derive our happiness here below from transient things. If we hope to have any consolation in this world, it will only be by despising the things which are passing and which have no lasting value and in striving towards the noble and happy end for which God has created us. Do you want to be happy, my friends? Fix your eyes on Heaven; it is there that your hearts will find that which will satisfy them completely."

Everything else is a lie. This is the meaning of life.